Fire and Liquor
by Ruby Owen
Summary: Modern AU - Arya and Gendry are travelling to Winterfell together when they stop for the night and discover more about each other thanks to a bottle of cheap vodka. Lemon
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is set in a modern AU where Arya and Gendry only met for the first time a week before the events of this story. Arya had just got back from Braavos and she meets Gendry by the side of the road. She hires him to accompany her back to Winterfell.**

Night was drawing in. A cold air was creeping over their skin as two figures trudged along the isolated forest, just as they had done for many hours, many days. They carried no luggage, just one small rucksack between them. Finally, one of them, Gendry, a twenty five year old man, dumped the bag on the hard ground. "I'm not going any further," he said finitely.

His companion, Arya, a girl of eighteen, looked at him in disgust. "You most certainly _are_ going further," she snapped defiantly, the cold giving her tone a further bite and her attitude a little more iciness than usual. "We have to keep moving."

"Says who? Look, I didn't ask to come," said Gendry, lowering himself casually to the ground. "It's _you_ who asked for _my_ help, remember?"

Arya bit her lip, stopping her from saying something she'd regret.

"So if you still want me to help you get home in one piece, don't argue. Get it?" He gave her a look that showed he was done talking about it.

Arya's blood became fire in her veins. Her breathing rate increased and her lips tightened. She forcefully wrenched her roughly-cut, mud-coloured hair into a short ponytail, securing it with a hairy around her wrist. She marched forward and snatched up the rucksack Gendry leant against. "What the-?" he watched her stride away deep into the woods. "What are you doing?"

"You're right, you know," Arya turned around to face him, walking backwards into the shadows. "I don't need you. I can find my way home by myself. And I won't need to stop every three seconds either! I release you from any contractual obligation to help me. Goodbye, Gendry."

Gendry stared after her, his mouth gaping wide. He was too confused to react for a while. Suddenly he realised what she was doing. He followed her briskly, almost running to catch up with her. "Hey, I know exactly what you're doing here," he smirked. "You're tricking me into going further with you. Well, _milady_ , it's not working."

Arya looked at him pointedly. "Really?"

"Really," he turned on his most charismatic smile and he stood in front of her, stopping her in her path.

"So why are you following me then?" she shoved past him roughly.

Disgruntled, he swivelled round. "You won't last out there, you know, not just you alone," he called out to her. "You won't make it through the night."

"Do try to remember that I grew up in Winterfell," she called back condescendingly. "It's in the North. It's colder in summer up there than in the bitterest winter down south. And I've made it so far. Besides," she drew the rucksack from her back. "Let's see what's in Gendry's beloved backpack, shall we? Maybe something to help 'make it through the night'?"

She opened the sack and tipped the contents onto the ground.

Armed with a sarcastic tone and a mood darker than the night around them, she rifled through the items. "Let's see... Rope... Blanket... Stale bread... an iPod... Ooh, what's this?" She picked up a bottle of clear liquid and opened it, taking a quick sniff. "Vodka! And there's still lots left! And what's hiding under the blanket-"

Gendry winced as she drew out three small square silver packets.

"Condoms!"

She held them up. Disgust soon grew on her face as she put two and two together. She made a noise of revulsion.

Gendry hurriedly tried to explain. "Wait, it's not-"

"It's not what I think?" she snapped. "What else am I supposed to think? Is money not enough to pay for gallant Gendry's services? What do you take me for?"

She threw them in his face and stormed off, picking up the bottle and taking it with her.


	2. Chapter 2

Gendry was sitting against a tree trunk. The light was all gone now; First Arya, then the vodka, now the light. Things just seemed to be getting worse for Gendry. He was alone, sober and in the dark. Suddenly he saw a glimpse of light out of the corner of his eye. He shuffled, shivering, towards it through the dense trees and found Arya huddled next to a small campfire. Gendry sat down next to her. Silently she handed him the vodka bottle. Last he checked, it had been nearly full. Now it was half-empty. He took a few deep swigs. The burning liquor warmed his belly. He took the blanket out from the rucksack and spread it over the two of them. They sat in silence.

"I trained as an assassin," muttered Arya, cracking the silence. "But it wasn't for me. I thought it was. I was so committed. But I was wrong, so I left. When I did, they followed me for a long time, kept trying to kill me. I spent a lot of time sleeping with one eye open and always glancing behind my shoulder as I ran. But then I killed one of them and they stopped chasing me. I'm scared that if we stop moving… they'll find me again."

She held out her hand for the bottle and took a long drink.

"I was left rowing on a boat for weeks by a guy I had just met," said Gendry. "Someone tried to kill me the night before so I guess he was saving my life? Worst part was I didn't even know how to row!"

Arya let out a snort of laughter and Gendry chuckled, glad she saw the funny side. He looked at her. _She's kinda hot when she isn't scowling_.

"When you met me, I had been living by the side of the road for about two weeks."

"I know how that feels," Arya muttered into the fire.

They drank together in silence again, watching the logs cracking in the orange flames.

"I didn't mean to bring the… they just… got mixed up," Gendry looked at Arya apologetically. "I never assumed that you'd… that we'd…"

"S'okay," she replied.

There was a slight pause. Then Arya wondered aloud: "How did a homeless guy afford condoms?"

Gendry burst out laughing and Arya collapsed into giggles too, the alcohol was slowly dulling their senses.

"I had a thing with a woman," Gendry explained. "She wasn't homeless she was just… let's just say she was a streetwalker. Anyway, she and I had a thing but it wouldn't have worked out. She got such a rich supply of condoms from her work that when she ended it, she gave me a stack of them and told me to go have some fun to forget her."

"You liked her a lot," Arya mused.

Gendry was thoughtful for a moment. "Nah, not really," he smiled. "The sex was too good for that."

Arya gave him a sharp shove and he smirked. Together they drank for a long time, the fire slowly crackling, the stars shining out from above their leafy canopy.

After a while Gendry reached for his iPod and they sang along in drunken slurs to the various indie bands that played for them into the night.

Soon the vodka was all gone. The pair lay side by side, the music a gentle medley of slow-moving ballads. There they looked up at the stars.

"You know what I really miss?" slurred Gendry.

"What?"  
"Fucking."

"What?" Arya snorted.

"I haven't fucked a girl in about a year," he said very matter-of-factly.

"What about her? The prostitute?" Arya asked.

"She left me ages ago," Gendry waved his hand through the air.

"And you're still hung up on it?" Arya smirked.

"What about you? When was your last time?" Gendry asked her.

"Never."

"What? You never…?"

"Never fucked anyone," Arya told him. "Never been fucked. Never fucked anyone. Not much of a chance when you're learning how to murder a man with a pencil."

"Well, you're missing out, mate," sighed Gendry, the vodka causing his words, like Arya's, to merge together.

There was a break in the conversation. Gendry stared up at the leaves and he heard a small rustle beside him as Arya turned over to face him.

"Hey Gendry?"

"Yeah?"

"Got any more of those condoms?"


End file.
